It is a campaign that in recent weeks has led to the deaths of more than a dozen Palestinians denied medical treatment outside Gaza – the most recent, a little girl called Yara Ismail Bakhit.

Israel and Abbas are doing this with the complicity of a so-called international community that remains silent about the unfolding catastrophe.

Closely allied with Israel, Abbas has long defined collaboration with its occupation forces as a “sacred” duty.

This collaboration has included encouraging Israel, from the very start, to tighten its blockade of Gaza.

The decade-long siege has brought the 2 million residents caged into the territory to perhaps their most dire crisis in a period that has included successive military assaults that have killed thousands of people.On Thursday, Gaza’s only power plant shut down after emergency fuel supplies ran out.

The territory is now dependent on just 70 megawatts of power supplied from Israel, a fraction of the 500 megawatts it needs each day.A “power watch” feature in the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz shows that Gaza City received just three hours of electricity on Wednesday, while some areas received four hours.

But with the power supply now below the all-time low it reached earlier this week, most residents face long stretches without any power at all amid the sweltering summer heat.

On top of the darkness and the heat, many in Gaza face a cut off of any contact with the outside world: the PA telecom company Paltel said that internet and telephone services to thousands of customers in Gaza have been severed as generators fail.

Unheeded warnings

On Wednesday, UN human rights officials emphasized that the latest power cuts “have deepened the humanitarian crisis with hospitals in precarious conditions, water shortages growing and untreated sewage being dumped into the Mediterranean.”

Their warnings will likely go unheeded, just like so many in recent months, including from the International Committee of the Red Cross that said in May that Gaza was on the brink of “systemic collapse.”

For months, health facilities across the territory have been in crisis and Gaza City’s main hospital has slashed vital surgeries because there isn’t enough power to run life support systems.

Yet the European Union, which never rests from trumpeting its alleged commitment to “human rights,” has maintained a determined silence which can only be interpreted as full support for the measures inflicting such suffering on Gaza.

Instead, the EU’s embassy in Tel Aviv as well as a top UN official, touted Abbas’ authority for collaborating with Israel to increase the electricity supply to Jenin, a town in the northern occupied West Bank.

The timing of the announcement, along with a grotesque ribbon-cutting ceremony in which PA officials appeared alongside Israeli military officers, looked calculated to rub salt into the wounds of people in Gaza.

Finally, on Thursday, after months of ignoring Gaza, the EU, as part of the so-called Quartet, issued a vague statement of “concern” that said nothing about Israel’s responsibilities.

Israel’s responsibilityThe UN experts emphasized that while Israel’s power cuts were nominally implemented at the request of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, Israel remains legally responsible.

Previously, senior UN officials have attempted to play down Israel’s responsibility, shifting the blame to an internal dispute between the Abbas-run PA in Ramallah, and Hamas authorities that control the interior of Gaza.

In April, the PA told Israel it would no longer pay the full bill for electricity Israel supplies to Gaza, as part of Abbas’ campaign to oust Hamas by inflicting additional hardship on the population in Gaza.

Over the last month, Israel has sharply reduced the power it supplies to Gaza – the territory’s main source of electricity.

“Israel, as the occupier controlling the entry and exit of goods and people, bore the primary responsibility for the deterioration of the situation,” the UN human rights experts said on Wednesday, according to a UN press release.

Human rights groups previously affirmed that it is illegal for Israel, as the occupying power, to cut the electricity to Gaza no matter what Abbas says.

Despite the Israeli cabinet’s decision to accept the Palestinian Authority’s “cruel plan to further reduce the power supply to Gaza,” B’Tselem said last month, the situation in Gaza “is the result of Israel’s handiwork, achieved by its decade-long implementation of a brutal policy.”

Killing babies

Three-year-old Yara Ismail Bakhit, who suffered from a heart condition, died because she was denied a medical transfer out of Gaza.

Dr. Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza, said on Thursday that the toddler, from the southern town of Khan Younis, is the 16th person to die in recent weeks because they weren’t able to secure a medical transfer.

Palestinian media have circulated these pictures of Yara:

Yara’s death is another sacrifice to Abbas’ campaign against the population in Gaza; it came about due to the delays his health ministry is imposing on requests for medical transfers to Israeli or West Bank treatment facilities.

The Ramallah health ministry must approve such requests before Israel does because it pays for any treatment provided in Israeli or West Bank hospitals.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights has documented a steady decline in medical referrals since April – when Abbas’ renewed onslaught against the population in Gaza began.

PCHR said on Monday that the PA health ministry had failed to approve or renew referrals for “hundreds of patients suffering from serious and chronic diseases without displaying the reasons behind this decision.”

According to PCHR, the number of referrals dropped from almost 2,200 in March to about 1,700 in April and fell below 1,500 in May. In June, the PA approved just 500.

As of early June, medical authorities in Gaza had approved some 2,500 patients “suffering from serious diseases that have no treatment in Gaza” for treatment outside the territory. But a month and a half later, the Ramallah authorities had only approved 400.

PCHR said it was “shocked” that West Bank hospitals have begun refusing to see patients from Gaza because there is no guarantor of payment.

PCHR said: “Denying patients their right to receive medical treatment abroad, in view of the absence of a proper alternative in Gaza, is a clear violation of the right to health ensured in the Palestinian Basic Law” – in effect the Palestinian Authority’s constitution.

PCHR calls on world governments to put pressure on Israel “in its capacity as an occupying power” to guarantee the rights of people in Gaza under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

It also “calls upon the international community to pressurize the Palestinian Authority not to undermine the basic rights of Palestinians residing in the Gaza Strip” and to respect its obligations under international law to the Palestinian people it allegedly serves.

The problem is that the Palestinian Authority and its leader are tools in the hands of the so-called international community against the Palestinians and their cause.

Their role is to help Israel occupy and pacify the Palestinian population, even at the price of the lives of children in Gaza.

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza on Thursday announced the death of a girl child following failed attempts to obtain a medical referral from the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah for her treatment in a hospital outside the besieged enclave.

A spokesman for the ministry said that three-year-old Yara Bakhit was suffering from a medical problem in the heart.

He said the child was a victim of the PA’s recent decision to deprive Gaza patients of medical referrals, noting that this measure already led to the death of 15 patients since the start of 2017.

A few days ago, the health ministry in Gaza warned that more citizens with serious medical problems could die after the PA decided to stop giving medical referrals for patients from the impoverished and beleaguered territory.

A human rights report kept record of the abduction of 84 Palestinian women and girls by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) over the past six months.

According to a report by the Palestine Prisoners Studies Center, 84 Palestinian women and girls were arrested by the Israeli forces since the start of 2017.

Media spokesperson for the center, Reyad al-Ashkar, said the Israeli forces have been chasing down Palestinian women and girls in a attempt to prevent them from joining anti-occupation protests or carrying out attacks against the Israeli soldiers and settlers.

Several Palestinian women and girls have been arbitrarily detained or/and shot on suspicion of intending to carry out anti-occupation attacks.

Among those arrested over the past few months, nine were identified as minors, among whom 12-year-old Hadil al-Rajabi, who was summoned to questioning in al-Mascoubiya detention center.

14-year-old Aya Amr was also kidnapped on allegations of attempting to stab soldiers at the Qalandiya checkpoint. Palestinian child Malek al-Ghalidh, aged 14, had been subjected to heavy beating in the pre-detention phase.

Two sisters from the blockaded Gaza Strip were also arrested by the Israeli forces at Beit Hanun (Erez) border-crossing on their way to a hospital in the West Bank for urgent treatment. One of the detainees is reportedly cancer-stricken.

Several other women and girls were arrested after they were shot and injured by the Israeli forces. The list included 17-year-old Takwa Hamad and 39-year-old Asia al-Ka’bana, both natives of Ramallah.

A 13-year old Palestinian boy suffered from a fractured eye socket, and total loss of one eye, after he was shot by Israeli police firing so-called ‘non-lethal weapons’ in al-Eesawiya, in east Jerusalem.

Nur Hamdan, 13, also suffered from other facial injuries when he was shot. He was standing on the second floor balcony of his family’s home when Israeli troops fired a sponge-tipped metal bullet directly at his face.

He was taken to a local clinic and immediately transferred to Hadassah Hospital, the largest hospital in East Jerusalem. He is the 16th Palestinian to have lost an eye from this type of bullet, according to human rights groups.

According to Israeli sources, the Israeli police invaded the neighborhood of al-Eesawiya when they received a report of a fight in the neighborhood.

When police arrived in the neighborhood with armored vehicles and automatic weapons, they reported that Palestinian youth began throwing stones.

The police said they then fired sponge-tipped bullets and other so-called ‘non-lethal weapons’ into the area – including at the child in the second story balcony of his home.

Nisreen Alyan of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel told reporters from Ha’aretz news, “This is a dangerous weapon that has already taken the life of one teen and caused head injuries to dozens of people, including children. Some lost their sight. It’s unacceptable that people who are on their balconies or near a window shouldn’t be safe, and should be injured by sponge-tipped bullets fired contrary to police regulations”.

The National AE newspaper reported in 2016 that the sponge-tipped bullet, known as bullet model 4557, is “capsule-like in shape, the bullets have a hard plastic base and a rounded tip covered in hard black foam. Some six centimetres long and three centimetres wide, they are heavier than the previous model used. While official authorisation did not come until January 2015, police had in fact been using them since July 2014 as violence escalated and eventually led to that year’s war on the Gaza Strip. While not designed to be lethal, the sponge-tipped bullet’s ability to inflict heavy damage has raised concern. Israeli police regularly use such bullets during clashes in mainly Palestinian east Jerusalem.”

Mohammed Sonoqrot was killed by a sponge-tipped bullet in 2014. No officers were charged with misconduct of any kind. He was 16 years old.

Israeli soldiers shot, Monday, a Palestinian child, only six years of age, in her arm, after the soldiers invaded Silwan town, in occupied East Jerusalem, and fired many concussion grenades at homes. The soldiers also invaded a children’s center and searched it, causing many to suffer anxiety attacks.

Undercover Israeli soldiers abducted, on Monday evening, a Palestinian child from Sebastia town, north of Nablus, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

Mohammad Azem, the head of the Local Council in Sebastia, said undercover Israeli soldiers infiltrated into the town, and assaulted Mahdi Nasser Shehab, 14, causing various cuts and bruises, and abducted him.

The Israeli authority has escalated over the past month its collective punishment policy against Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem, the Wadi Hilweh Information Center said in its monthly report.

The report stated that four Jerusalemite youths were killed by Israeli gunfire in June while 126 others were arrested during the same reported period.

Three Jerusalemites aged between 18 and 19 were killed on June 16 by Israeli police while a 23-year-old young man was shot and killed in a separate incident on June 20 for alleged anti-occupation attacks.

The four dead bodies are still held in Israeli morgues as Israel continues to refuse handing over two other slain Jerusalemites’ bodies since last October.

On the other hand, the report revealed that 1,339 Israeli settlers broke into al-Aqsa Mosque over June via the Israeli-controlled al-Magharibeh gate.

The Israeli break-ins into the Mosque had notably intensified during the last ten days of the holy month of Ramadan.

Meanwhile, an employee of the Waqf department was denied access into the holy shrine for a whole month, while four guards of al-Aqsa were summoned for investigation last month.

The monthly report also documented the arrest of 126 Jerusalemites in June including 40 minors, three women, and two old men.

Furthermore, Israeli authorities tightened military restrictions near Bab al-Amoud area for two days in the past month of June following an alleged stabbing attack, preventing West Bankers’ access to al-Aqsa Mosque in the process.

Along the same line, the Israeli police detained four Palestinian citizens, who work as musaharatis (Ramadan predawn drummers or wakers) in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem for several hours before being released on a bail.

Five other Jerusalemite youths were brutally attacked by a group of settlers before Israeli police arrested four of them.

In a statement on Thursday, the committee pointed out that this number represents a remarkable increase compared to fines imposed on young prisoners in the previous month. Israeli occupation judiciary has recently been imposing too expensive fines on Palestinian prisoners in general as a punitive policy.

Around 35 detained minors were held in juveniles’ section in Ofer jail after being arrested from different locations last month. They all were subjected to different forms of torture during detention time or transfers to detention centers, military camps and settlements, the statement highlighted.

Israeli soldiers invaded, Wednesday, Shu’fat refugee camp, north of occupied East Jerusalem, and broke into a home before forcing a mother and her toddler out of their property, leaving them under the sun for more than ninety minutes.

Media sources in the refugee camp said dozens of soldiers invaded it, before many soldiers broke into a home belonging to Houshiyya family, and forced a mother and her toddler out of their property.

The soldiers kept the mother and her toddler under the sun, without even allowing them access to water, or a change of clothing for the child, while searching their property for ninety minutes.

The soldiers did not abduct or detain any Palestinian during the invasion, and gave no reason for invading the Palestinian home, and forcing the mother and her toddler out.

Israeli soldiers abducted, overnight and at dawn Monday, seventeen Palestinians, including children, from their homes in different parts of the occupied West Bank.

Morad Eshteiwy, the media spokesperson of the Popular Committee in Kufur Qaddoum, northeast of the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, said the soldiers invaded the town, stormed and ransacked homes and abducted five Palestinians.

Eshteiwy added that the abducted Palestinians have been identified as Aws Abdul-Razeq, 26, Aref Marwan, 19, Amer Taha, 16, Sobhi Mansour, 16, and his brother Salah, 15. The soldiers also interrogated many Palestinians while inspecting their ID cards, and violently searching their homes.

Furthermore, Eshteiwy said that the invasion and abductions came while the Palestinians are planning for a central procession, this Friday, marking the sixth anniversary of ongoing g popular struggle against the Israeli Annexation Wall and Colonies, built on privately-owned lands.

In Jenin, in the northern part of the West Bank, the soldiers invaded many homes in Barta’a town, and abducted one Palestinian, identified as Omar Abdullah Kabaha, 23.

The soldiers also installed a roadblock at the main road leading to Arraba town, near Jenin, searched many cars while interrogating many Palestinians and inspecting their ID cards, and abducted Qais Kamal ‘Areeda, 23, and Fuad Shareeda al-Aqhash, 31.

In addition, the soldiers installed many roadblocks around villages and towns, in various parts of Jenin governorate, before stopping and searching dozens of cars, and examined the ID cards of many Palestinians, while interrogating them.

The soldiers also invaded Be’er al-Basha village, south of Jenin, and broke into Bilal Bin Rabah local mosque, before violently searching it, and occupied its rooftop, before eventually withdrawing from the area, and installed a roadblock in the center of the town.

The Israeli army said its soldiers arrested two Palestinians in Husan town, west of Bethlehem, Ras al-Ein in Nablus, and one in Aboud village, near Ramallah.